Life's tragedies are made up not as much of the great failures as the simple pleasures and kind gestures missed

Monday, January 21, 2008

The Greatest Invention

I was reading an article in a magazine this week about great inventions. There have been alot of great inventions by many great inventors. The Wright Brothers invented the airplane, Alexander Graham Bell the telephone. Maybe the greatest innovator was Benjamin Franklin...he is credited with electricity, bifocals, and the Franklin stove (which I'd never heard of til this article).

None of these, though, in my mind are the greatest invention. By far the best invention since the caveman invented the wheel is the paid vacation. The thought of sitting at home or on the beach for a week and getting a paycheck for it. This week is one of my few vacation weeks. One that doesn't include a trip of any kind, just piddling.

I could go into my economic stimulus plan. The plan that doubles all working people's vacations. It would cause companies to hire more workers to cover vacations while taking a small amount of money from the upper class and infusing it into the middle class, not as charity but for work. The bums that chose not to work would only get poorer (which they probably deserve). The plan would decrease unemployment, strengthens the family (more home time), and makes for happier workers (which in turn are more productive).

But instead of going into detail about weird plans in my head like this, I'd like to figure out who invented the vacation and start a campaign for him or her to be included in the great names mentioned above. I salute you Mr. I invented the vacation man...you are a great American.

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. " --Abraham Lincoln